Was I Wrong? (Neutral Feedback on eBay)

winesteven · September 26, 2025 6:50PM

I buy many coins on eBay (usually low priced coins), and without exception, I always leave feedback. As best as I can remember, I’ve never left any feedback other than Positive.

The coin was fine, and shipping was quick. BUT, I messaged him TWICE, each time politely asking him to remove his (now my) coin from HIS Registry set! He did not!

You all know the following routine - I now had to waste MY time to take two photos with today’s newspaper in the background to prove I have the coin in my possession, upload each photo from my phone to my desktop, then upload each photo to the PCGS tool, then wait for PCGS to remove the coin from his set so I can have the pleasure of having it in my Registry set (nowadays, PCGS is quick).

As such, I left neutral feedback, stating the above, and making sure I started out my comment that the coin and shipping was fine.

Was I wrong? I’d like to hear what our resident eBay expert, @jmlanzaf also thinks.

Steve

HTW · September 26, 2025 7:55PM

I don’t think so, meaning I think neutral feedback was fair. Negative would have been unwarranted I agree with you on that. After all his main obligation he performed well, as a seller on eBay. I had a small store on eBay for about 4 years. Extra money I’m retired at 59. I sold nearly every sub $1000 coins that I had (not ALL of course) as I transformed my collection over those years to about 400 slabs. But I have no more “eBay appropriate” coins anymore. I ran a lot of auctions and unless it was a very special coin anything above a grand just didn’t do that well. I need to consign with Great Collections, Heritage, etc. there are few deep pockets on eBay I found out the hard way.
I’m telling you this because even though for me it didn’t pay my bills and I simply sold for nicer coins of some extra money. But I found it very very consuming mentally at times to maintain my %100 feedback I worked VERY hard for. Glad that’s over though.
So I look at it from that perspective. I mean maybe this seller didn’t give a crap. I did and I took that very seriously.
Your timing is perfect as I just had my own eBay experience as a buyer. Bought 3 2021 BU Silver Eagles (who isn’t buying or selling gold and silver these days) and all 3 had milk spots, badly too so the photos this guy used weren’t what I got. Sent him a very sarcastic message telling the guy I’m returning them and thanked him for wasting my time. He wrote back and obviously said he’d accept the returns. I sent them back today in fact.
But I have no idea if this guy sells on eBay as a full time job. I guess I’m too afraid to take food off of some guys dinner table.
So I leave nothing. Sometimes it ain’t easy especially the really egregious instances, but so far I just skip the feedback.
I think what you did was fair.
Take care my friend
HTW #1 in Everyman Morgan Set

davewesen · September 26, 2025 9:35PM

I feel you are wrong assuming that the coin is registered in their set or inventory, unless you have reason to believe otherwise.

winesteven · September 27, 2025 2:54AM

The coin was absolutely registered in the set of the seller! How do I know that? When I plug the cert number into the PCGS “Verify” tool, it shows me the name of the Registry set where the coin is currently registered! And the name of the Registry set is…… the EXACT name of the seller!!!!!

Please see in my original post that I indicated in all caps AND in bold that this coin was in HIS Registry set!

Steve

lermish · September 27, 2025 7:05AM

It's absolutely something that I could see myself doing...but I still think it's is a bit of an overreaction. There is no excuse for him ignoring messages.

Would you have done the same thing if it was in some other random person's registry, and not the seller's?

I totally get it but I would probably lean towards you being in the wrong on this one.

winesteven · September 27, 2025 7:27AM

Had it been in someone else's Registry, I would not have faulted the seller at all!

oldsmagnet · September 27, 2025 8:48AM

If it's in his own registry, there's no excuse in saying he doesn't know how the system works. Even if it's an honest mistake, or PCGS has him locked out of his account or something, the failure to acknowledge any follow-up messages is still a major fail within the ebay system. That on its own should probably be enough to warrant neutral feedback

WAYNEAS · September 27, 2025 4:57PM

@winesteven
I applaud you for doing so.
I say that we all should start leaving neutral feedback to those that put us thru the burden of getting a coin into our set registry that they sell and do not release.
There are many here who will say why it is in poor taste to do so because of this reason or another.
I say there are more of us having to jump thru hoops than there are excuses of why they can not release it, especially in not replying to an email request to do so.
I always leave positive feedback upon receipt of the coin but will hold off on doing so until that coin becomes part of my set.
If I need to go thru the process, I too will leave "NEUTRAL FEEDBACK" stating that the seller did not respond to requests to do so and detailing why I had issues but also leaving the positive things about the transaction.
Wayne

jt88 · September 28, 2025 11:03AM

I think you did it right

Downtown1974 · September 28, 2025 12:03PM

I think you’re right in this scenario. He ignored messages from you and PCGS. PCGS sends emails to former coin owners to delete them too. It’s his lack of communication that bothers me. I know life gets in the way, but it takes the same amount of time to reply to an eBay inquiry as it does to send a selfie to someone from their smarty-pants phone.

Samets · September 29, 2025 6:15AM

IF the seller doesn't respond, then the neutral feedback is appropriate in my eyes.

golden · September 29, 2025 5:57PM

I think that you were right.

jfriedm56 · September 30, 2025 2:19PM

You did the right thing Steve. I know how frustrating it can be waiting on the previous owner of your coin to delete it from their registry. PCGS does a pretty decent job clearing the hurdles to get the process moving. You could have given a negative response which may be warranted, but you were considerate. Unfortunately some people just don’t care. Zack.

Sagittarius · October 1, 2025 11:00AM

You were 100% right Steve.

danegeld5 · October 1, 2025 11:28AM

I think its a over reaction on your part, its frustrating to be sure, however you have no idea if he ever recived the messages to remove the coin from PCGS or they didnt go into his spam folder, or something in their life prevented them from timely removing the coin.. Further you dont know if PCGS website wasnt wonky when he tried to remove it or any other factor. I speak from the personal experience that 50% of what i do here ended up with a error message and i had to come back latter and try again. YMMV

winesteven · October 1, 2025 11:45AM

@danegeld5 said:
I think its a over reaction on your part, its frustrating to be sure, however you have no idea if he ever recived the messages to remove the coin from PCGS or they didnt go into his spam folder, or something in their life prevented them from timely removing the coin.. Further you dont know if PCGS website wasnt wonky when he tried to remove it or any other factor. I speak from the personal experience that 50% of what i do here ended up with a error message and i had to come back latter and try again. YMMV

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. i agree each of those scenarios in theory are possible. But what I know as a FACT is that when he sold me this coin it was in his Registry set, so the courteous thing to do is to remove that coin once I paid for it and had it in my possession!!!

Steve

Was I Wrong? (Neutral Feedback on eBay)

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